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Benjamin Black
Curriculum Vitæ
I am a PhD student currently working within the ValPar.CH project as part of the research group Planning of Landscape Urban Systems (PLUS) at ETH Zürich.
Education
Doctor of Civil Engineering
ETH Zürich
Zurich, Switzerland
Oct. 2020 - Present
MSc in Environmental Sciences, Policy and Management (MESPOM)
Central European University, University of Manchester, Lund University, University of the Aegean
Hungary, Greece, UK
Sep. 2018 - Jun. 2020
Award: Outstanding academic achievement (highest GPA in cohort: 4.00/4.00)
BSc with 1st Class Honours in Biological Sciences
Edinburgh Napier University
Edinburgh, Scotland
Sep. 2010 - Jun. 2014
Awards: University medal (highest average mark on degree route); Lawrence Ho student prize; Dennis Aw award.
Professional Experience
Project Manager & Volunteer Co-ordinator
Elephant Livelihood Initiatives and Environment (E.L.I.E)
Mondulkiri, Cambodia
April. 2015 - June. 2017
Activities: Managed a diverse team (Bunong Indigenous minority, and Khmer) of 48 staff. Oversaw the operation of an ecotourism project receiving 4000+ visitors a year. Facilitated ongoing capacity building of staff and development of the volunteer program. Compiled budgets, handled cash flow to staff and submitted detailed financial reports. Produced reports for the board of directors and Cambodian government. Developed relationships with other environmental and conservation organisations in the region.
Student Affairs Manager
The School for Field Studies Center for Conservation and Development Studies in the Lower Mekong
Siem Reap, Cambodia
Jan. 2018 - Aug. 2018
Activities: Coordinated safety and risk management as well as logistics for all centre activities including multi day field trips to remote locations in Cambodia and Vietnam. Medical ‘point person’, facilitated first aid training for staff. Performed pastoral role: ensuring student well-being, resolving group management issues and facilitating cultural adaptation.
Biodiversity and SMART Intern
The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS)
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Jul. 2019 - Aug. 2019
Activities: Produced protected area species inventories in line with Darwin Core standards utilising OpenRefine, R scripting and API services to expedite the collection of external data from the IUCN, EDGE ranking and CITES. Assisted in the training of new community biodiversity rangers in the process of SMART data collection in the field.
Workshop Experience
Reproducible Research with R and Quarto: Workflows for data, projects and publications
Three hour workshop as part of Landscape 2024 conference
Berlin, Germany
Sep. 2024
Awards
NAture-positive SCenarios for ENvironmental Transitions: Peru (NASCENT-PERU)
Swiss Re Foundation
Zürich, Switzerland
Jun. 2023
Funded project under the SwissRE Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Scenarios Modelling Initiative
Oral communications
My Journey To Transparency And Reproducibility (French)
Min2Rien (www.min2rien.fr)
Online (Lille, France)
Apr. 2021
Jointly Modelling SNPs With Survival & Longitudinal Trait
A Statistical Seminar Applied on Type 2 Diabetes
(Host: Pr. Paul Franks)
Lund, Sweden
Jan. 2019
Jointly Modelling SNPs With Survival & Longitudinal Trait
Thematic Day “Statistic & Genomic”
of the “Réseau Interdisciplinaire
autour de la Statistique”
(RIS) (ris.cnrs.fr)
Paris, France
Oct. 2018
Longitudinal Genetic Modelling: Revisiting Associations of SNPs Associated With Blood Fasting Glucose in Normoglycemic Individuals
Statistical Methods for Post Genomic Data
(SMPGD) (math.univ-lille1.fr/~celisse/SMPGD)
Lille, France
Feb. 2016
Publications
Epigenome-Wide Association Study Reveals Methylation Loci Associated With Offspring Gestational Diabetes Mellitus Exposure and Maternal Methylome
NULL
N/A
Sep. 2021
† As first or co-first author.
: an R package for quality control of NanoString nCounter data
Mickaël Canouil, Gerard A Bouland, Amélie Bonnefond, Philippe Froguel, Leen M ’t Hart and Roderick C Slieker
N/A
Feb. 2020
† As first or co-first author.
Laser capture microdissection of human pancreatic islets reveals novel eQTLs associated with type 2 diabetes
NULL
N/A
Jun. 2019
† As first or co-first author.
Increased Hepatic PDGF-AA Signaling Mediates Liver Insulin Resistance in Obesity-Associated Type 2 Diabetes
NULL
N/A
Jul. 2018
† As first or co-first author.
Jointly Modelling Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms With Longitudinal and Time-to-Event Trait: An Application to Type 2 Diabetes and Fasting Plasma Glucose
Mickaël Canouil, Beverley Balkau, Ronan Roussel, Philippe Froguel and Ghislain Rocheleau
N/A
Jun. 2018
† As first or co-first author.
Low-dose exposure to bisphenols A, F and S of human primary adipocyte impacts coding and non-coding RNA profiles
Marie Verbanck, Mickaël Canouil, Audrey Leloire, Véronique Dhennin, Xavier Coumoul, Loïc Yengo, Philippe Froguel and Odile Poulain-Godefroy
N/A
Jun. 2017
† As first or co-first author.
Expression and functional assessment of candidate type 2 diabetes susceptibility genes identify four new genes contributing to human insulin secretion
NULL
N/A
Jun. 2017
† As first or co-first author.